


It Coulda Been, Shoulda Been Me ...

by ScribblesInTheMargins



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Georgi is a romantic, Hopeful Ending, Mari is a realist, Minor Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, slightly angsty, victuuri wedding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:09:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28541568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScribblesInTheMargins/pseuds/ScribblesInTheMargins
Summary: When Georgi Popovich received an invitation for the wedding of Victor Nikiforov and Katsuki Yuuri, maybe no one had expected him to attend.  He had nothing better to do, and maybe, just maybe a change of scenery would be good for him.  The decision made, it took three flights and a train to get there -- but maybe, just maybe, that was the best decision he could have made.  Maybe it took a romantic heart to see the beauty that was in Katsuki Mari.
Relationships: Katsuki Mari/Georgi Popovich
Comments: 24
Kudos: 38
Collections: YOI Rare Pair Week 2021





	It Coulda Been, Shoulda Been Me ...

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the beginning of Rare Pair Week 2021!!!
> 
> Please check out our tumblr https://yoirarepairweek.tumblr.com/ for information and keep your eyes on the collection for the event here on AO3
> 
> Also, check out social media for the tag #YOIRarePair2021

Georgi could have gotten out of attending the wedding. He could have come up with some excuse, but after all the years he had been a rink mate to Victor, he had thought saying yes to the invitation was better. The wedding was during the off-season, and his written invitation had arrived with suggestions on airports, transportation, and hotels. It was personalized without being personal.

Maybe it was because he had flown so far to attend, but he had received a text inviting him to the dinner that was being held after the rehearsal. It was proper etiquette if you had a guest that had taken three planes and a train to get to your wedding after all -- never mind that Georgi had known Victor for ages now. They'd been skating against each other since he had been eight after all. For all the podiums and smiles they had shared, Victor had always been higher on the podium and brighter in the pictures. It was fine. People often forgot that there had been four years where Georgi had been the second-rated skater in all of Russia.

There had been about thirty people at the dinner, a very nice place serving traditional Japanese food -- this was Japan after all. Many of the people, Georgi knew -- Christophe, Phichitt, Yura, Otabek, several Japanese skaters, and a few other skaters he had competed against over the years. It was a very pleasant dinner. Once the alcohol started flowing though, the noise volume in the private room started to go up and the summer heat inside started to become a lot. Carefully excusing himself for a moment, Georgi went in search of some fresh air.

There was a small balcony off the room, and as Georgi stepped out into the night air, he realized that he wasn't alone. He had done his best to try and remember everyone's names, but things had been so quick, he wasn't even sure if she had been introduced by name or just as 'Yuuri's sister'. "I am sorry, I just stepped out for some air."

A cigarette hung from the woman's lips as she looked over at him, "Plenty of air." She gave him a little shrug, not moving from where she was.

"My apologies. In all the introductions, I am not sure if I was ever told your name?"

"If that's flirting, don't bother." She took a deep inhale from the cigarette before blowing out the smoke into the night air.

"I see." He had no idea what to say to that. He hadn't been flirting. In fact, this entire trip was to get away from people more than he wanted to admit.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Look. Sorry if that came across harsh, but you have a reputation."

He tried to keep a polite smile, but he failed. "Ah, yes." He knew his reputation. He was a serial dater. He'd fall in love, the girl would leave him -- often with drama. He'd say always with drama but there was probably one time where there wasn't any … probably. Dating wasn't normal, not to the extent he had. You were supposed to be drawn to your soulmate, find them, marry them. It's what Victor had done, even across hundreds of kilometers. He had never been good at being like Victor.

"You know it's all bullshit."

"What is?" He turned to her, watching as she pulled out another cigarette.

"All this true love and happily ever. It just makes people think they don't have to work at things."

Georgi wasn't sure how it happened, but he found himself accepting a cigarette himself as Mari continued. He didn't normally smoke, just sometimes if he was out at a bar with friends. This was close enough.

"Like when you skate, it's all those ballets and plays and such where the two people find each other and every last real-life thing they have to deal with goes away. Like no more bills, no keeping a business running, no rooms to clean, no meals to make, just oh look, we're in love, everything is perfect." Maybe Mari had been drinking too much, maybe she was just brutally honest.

"With Yuuri's skating, he isn't around to help at the onsen much, I assume?"

She rolled her eyes as she blew smoke into the night air. "I love my brother, don't get me wrong." She shrugged. Georgi's assumption had been exactly right.

Georgi was about to say something when he noticed how the light glinted off the corner of her eye. She wasn't crying, but … He took a step closer, his voice dropping. "It must be hard being the one who stayed at the onsen to help your parents with the business. At least Yuri's sponsorship situation has gotten better recently." That was not mentioning the years where Yuri had not had sponsors and had been training in foreign countries. Prize money was good, but sponsorships were what made the money go around.

"It's what it is."

"That's what I tell myself sometimes too." He tried to give her a little smile.

Mari's only reaction was to scoff at that

"Why that reaction?"

"Whatever." She inhaled again before letting the smoke drift into the air, watching as a soft breeze dispersed the cloud. "You're one of the top-ranked professional skaters, and have been for years. Sure, your love life might be a shambles that all the gossip sites report on, but you're still out there seeing the world."

  
  


Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe it was just that feeling of aloneness that a wedding could trigger when you were without someone to love, but Georgi moved forward, "Where do you want to go? I'll take you."

She shook her head, "We already are closing the onsen for almost a week because of this wedding."

"And then your brother is flying back to St. Piter…"

"It's where his training is based."

Georgi could hear her parents inside where the party was getting louder, her dad was drunk and so was Yuuri. He heard some questioning of, "Where is your sister? Where is Mari?" He knew she didn't want to go in there.

She sighed, "I should go back in there."

"No, you shouldn't. You don't have the be the responsible one tonight. The onsen is closed. They're fine. Let them be stupid and drunk, they aren't your responsibility tonight."

She shrugged, "It's fine. I should make sure my father isn't--"

"He's a grown man. If he's drinking too much and makes a fool of himself, it's just friends and family and it'll be fine in the morning. Tomorrow, your brother gets to be the fairytale prince. There isn't any reason that you can't be the princess tonight." He smiled at her. She really was pretty. In the pictures that Victor and Yuuri posted, he had never seen her outside of work clothes. There was one or two where she had been at a competition bundled in a coat. Tonight, she was wearing a dress.

"I'm not a princess." She didn't sound as annoyed as she had been earlier.

With cigarettes snubbed out, he offered her a hand. "I don't believe that for one moment."

She reached out to touch his hand, eyes rolling, but clearly, she was going to say yes. The second their fingers touched, she gasped. It wasn't much to anyone else, but to them, there was a spark. Mari stood there looking at her hand in his, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "No."

"What do you mean, no?" It was clear, there was a spark. That meant something, and maybe things did not always work out when people shared a spark like that, there was a reason it was still called finding one's soulmate.

"I am not moving to Russia. I am not leaving my parents. I am not abandoning the onsen." There was determination in his voice. Her mind was made up and nothing was going to change that.

"I never asked you to do any of those things." He still held onto her hands as they stood on the balcony. "Maybe, just maybe let yourself believe?" He stepped closer as he said it. Holding her hands in his, there were only a few centimeters between them now as he looked down at her.

"I know who I am." She didn't pull away, looking up at him with no effort to put more space between their bodies.

"Let yourself believe, just for tonight even, that maybe you are a beautiful princess and you deserve your own story?" It had been so long since there had been a spark between him and anyone else. He wasn't going to let this chance go. In a foreign country, outside the party, at a wedding he wasn't even really wanted at -- he leaned forward to place a kiss on the lips of the sister everyone forgot about, but who was the one always keeping everything together so everyone else's dreams could come true. Maybe, just maybe, she deserved her own happily ever after, and Georgi was going to try to show her that.


End file.
